Colts beat Texans in coach Pagano's return

Colts head coach Chuck Pagano points toward the crowd as he leaves the field after his team beat the Houston Texans in Indianapolis yesterday. It was Pagano's first game back since announcing in September that he had been diagnosed with leukemia. (Reuters)

Ken Fidlin, QMI Agency

Last Monday, at the end of his first day back to work after a season-long battle with leukemia, Chuck Pagano walked out of his office and flipped a switch to extinguish the lights.

It was the first time those lights had been turned off since the Colts head coach announced his diagnosis to the team in September, handing over the coaching reins to offensive coordinator Bruce Arians while he under went treatment.

Arians had asked that the lights remain on in Pagano’s office until the head coach himself returned to the team.

“Only if you’re cut from the cloth that Bruce is cut from, the type of man he is, would you come up with something like that,” Pagano said on Sunday. “When I walked out of that office on Monday evening and turned that light off for the first time in over three months, it was like victory.”